I've been getting an idea slowly, but not quite sure what to do with it. I went to bed last night with a vague plot idea, and woke up with a story ready to begin. So, I hope it goes alright.
Another thing: I'm not really sure who to put as the main characters of it. Remus and Lily, Remus and James, James and Lily or Remus and Sirius?
This is part one (of course) of fifteen, going off the plan I've developed. So yeah, enjoy, and please let me know what you think :)
"But why does the stirring affect the contents? I thought it was just like muggle cooking," Remus muttered, frowning as he re-read the page from the library's Potions text book.
Lily was sitting close beside him, studying the page intently; her brow furrowed in amusement as she listened to Remus' mumblings.
"Remus," she began, turning to gaze at him, "If you're looking for the answers to life, I think a Potions book is the wrong place to be."
The two of them laughed in unison, though Remus was still puzzling over it.
"But, what would happen if I were to stir one way wrong, just one tiny way – would the entire thing be ruined?" he asked her, eager to find out more about the one lesson he was truly awful at.
"Try it, and see," she asked him. For the most part, she was quite good at Potions. This was generally because she'd spent a great deal of her time in the company of Severus Snape – a fellow sixth year, though Slytherin. Both Lily and Severus had gone separate ways after the summer of the previous year, and though Severus had often claimed he missed her, his actions never really corresponded to his words, and so their friendship had evaporated.
Lily was substantially better at Potions than Remus was, but when it came to his philosophical questions, she never knew where to begin.
"I can't," Remus said after a brief moment, "I've sort of...erm...been stopped from doing anything with the potions after last time..." he turned away, a faint blush evident on his cheeks, somewhat embarrassed at his awfulness at the subject.
Lily growled slightly. Last time, in the lesson, one of Sirius and James' pranks had gone dreadfully wrong. The prank was made to look accidental, though, landing Remus the blame. Since then Professor Slughorn had been hesitant to allow Remus near any of the apparatus, and Remus was only too happy to oblige.
"If I get my hands on that Potter," she went on, glaring into space.
"Hey," Remus said, softly nudging her.
As emerald eyes met amber ones, the two melted into a sort of kind understanding.
Lily smiled at Remus, who returned the smile himself before turning back to the book.
"I guess I could try it, for you," Lily suggested.
Remus chuckled slightly, "What, and have both of us at the back on time out?" he joked.
Lily had begun shaking her head as soon as she realised what he was saying, "He likes me," she began, "I can be forgiven for such a ludicrous act."
Remus contemplated this carefully. Unlike James would have, Remus felt no jealously whatsoever in regards to Slughorn's favouritism of Lily and a couple of others. They excelled his class, and so they deserved it.
"It's okay; it's something I can just ponder myself for the next couple of lessons," Remus commended with no trace of bitterness. He liked puzzling over things – it kept his mind busy.
"If you're sure," Lily responded, studying him for any sign that he didn't mean it.
"It's okay," he repeated, withdrawing his half completed essay from his bag.
"Ah, I'll help you on this," Lily said, standing up and carrying their things to the nearest table. She returned to see Remus scanning the work he had done already on the essay, and it was clear that he didn't understand a word of it.
Lily held out a hand to help him up, but instead he placed the essay in her hand, and stood up unaided.
Nonplussed, she went back to the table and sat down, reading through his essay.
Remus sat in silence as he watched her quill scrawl along his mistakes, correcting them as she went.
He could only just appreciate how Sirius, James and Peter felt as they sat back to wait for him to check their essay; a longing for freedom of the difficult work they'd been faced with.
"There," Lily said after a short while, pushing the essay over to Remus.
He cast her a grateful look, before beginning to continue with the essay.
Slowly, Lily stood up to peer over Remus' shoulder. Oblivious, Remus continued to work – writing in extraordinary words, to cover up for the fact that he knew little about what it was he was actually writing about.
"It's four times clockwise, not twice anti-clockwise," Lily said softly, leaning around Remus to point to where his mistake was.
It took him a moment to realise that she was stood right behind him, and a cold shiver ran down his spine as he nodded and made to correct his error.
In the doorway, James Potter hissed. He liked to watch Lily studying; hell, he liked to watch Lily all the time. It wasn't rare for him to grow jealous of how close she was to other people. But as he knew 97% of them weren't really her type, he overlooked it. Now, however, with one of his best friends so close with her, his blood boiled.
The rational part of his mind told him that he was overreacting, and that Remus merely needed help on his Potions work. But when was that part of his mind ever listened to?
He needed something that would get her to leave the library.
Searching his pockets in a haste, as Lily bent around Remus to point out another mistake, James' fingers found something. Retracting it from his pocket he noted a stink bomb; one that he had hidden from Filch, the caretaker.
Without a second thought, James threw the stink bomb into the aisle beside the one Remus and Lily had earlier neglected, before he hid himself in the shadows, and waited for the effects to take place.
"Eurgh!" Lily gasped, taking in a mouthful of the vile stench roaming through the library, "I need to get out of here," she all but said before taking her things and leaving.
Remus was long since used to the smell of such, and so it took him a few moments longer to note what the problem was.
Slowly, he packed away his things and made his way out of the library in a different way to the one in which Lily had headed.
James' work there was done.
Next time: Remus heads back to the common room. What will arise when James also returns?